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DETECTIVE MARTIN BILLNITZER'S FAMILY – Last in the Series, IF THE WALLS COULD TALK

Detective Martin Billnitzer

NOTE: My new novel, Dishonored and Forgotten, about this incident, will be available in January. I am scheduled to speak about the book at the January meeting of the Houston Police Retired Officers Association on January 12th.Houston Police Detective Martin
Billnitzer’s family never believed he committed suicide at the police station
in 1954. Even the most gullible observer
would have likely questioned the ruling of suicide. He was shot twice in the heart and was
believed to have been cooperating with Federal agents in the investigation of
corruption within the highest echelons of the Houston Police Department.

Today when an officer is killed, the
department has a Family Assistance Unit available to guide the family through
this difficult time. In 1954 no such
unit existed. Some Billnitzer family
members felt at the time that the Houston Police Department was more a threat
than a band of brother officers. One
relative described the funeral as “scary,” saying she believed the killer was a
policeman and that he might be at the funeral. Martin's brother, Harold, was reported as
having been afraid to go near the casket that day.

But Harold held a life-long hope that
the report of Martin Billnitzer’s death would someday be investigated again and
proven a murder. He remembered Martin
telling him that another officer had suggested if Martin wanted it, he could
live more luxuriously than most officers did at the time. The implication was that more money could be
made while he worked narcotics cases. In
his memoir, published in 1976 or later, Harold wrote,I pray that someone will come forward to clear Martin’s name before I
die. I would like to be able to forgive him (the responsible person) so that
God can forgive me.

Harold’s son, Michael, took up the
effort to clear his uncle’s name. He
knew it was important to his father. Documents were gathered, including those from
the Federal Government in which agents referred to the Billnitzer death as a
murder. A reporter for an internet news
outlet wrote about the death, writing that Michael sought out forensics experts
around the country to review the previous autopsy and other reports. One, forensics psychologist Katherine
Ramsland, agreed to look at the case. Some
of her findings were surprising. According to her review, the reports made at
the time indicated no fingerprints were found on the murder weapon; it was
highly unlikely that Billnitzer could have accomplished shooting himself twice
in the heart; and thatthe
death-scene investigation appears, at the very least, to have involved tunnel
vision: an assumption that Billnitzer had reason to commit suicide, so the
death event is therefore a suicide.

Finally, believing he had gathered
enough information to warrant another look at his uncle’s death, Michael
Billnitzer wrote a letter, in January of 2004, to Acting Houston Police Chief
Joe L. Breshears. He requested the
investigation be re-opened and he forwarded the information he had gathered
with the request. On March 3, less than
two months later, he received a response. The letter read, in part,…the Homicide Division conducted
considerable research into the matter and learned that Detective Billnitzer’s
death was thoroughly investigated at the time….. Our research in this matter
uncovered no information that would contradict this finding or warrant
reopening the case…In
fairness to the department, maybe Michael Billnitzer’s request was a difficult
one to accommodate. Re-opening a
fifty-year old case is sometimes impractical.

Approaching the various memorial organizations that
recognize officers who sacrifice their lives in the line of duty might have
been more successful. We honor our
officers who give their lives in the line of duty. We have memorial walls for their names. Families are honored at the state capitol and
survivors have formed groups to help family members cope with the tragic loss. But in the case of Martin Billnitzer, we may
have left a comrade behind. Could a
definitive conclusion be reached at this late date, sixty years after the fact?
Probably not, but a part of me wants to
believe thatwhen an officer takes the oath, pins on the
badge and straps on the gun, in a case like this, we should err on the side of
the deceased officer.

2 comments:

Incredible story. While it may be "impractical" to re-open such a case, it strikes me that the bare facts reveal an incomplete investigation, obvious unanswered questions, and a feeble attempt to put distance between Billnitzer's death and reality